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It was a celebration befitting a championship victory. The Saratoga girls hadn't won a title, though. They'd just won an overtime thriller against Prospect to clinch fifth place in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton Division field hockey standings.
Still, the Falcons had good reason to celebrate--the winner of the Nov. 2 game was going to the Central Coast Section tournament.
Alex Block's goal in overtime snapped a 1-1 tie to lift the Falcons to the win over the Panthers and into CCS playoffs. Saratoga will open the Section tourney on Nov. 10, 3 p.m., at Lynbrook, the No. 2 finisher in the BVAL's Santa Teresa Division. The winner will move on to play St. Francis (Mt. Hamilton No. 2) on Nov. 12, 11:45 a.m., in the semifinals at St. Francis.
In other 3 p.m. first-round match-ups on Nov. 10, Los Gatos (Mt. Hamilton No. 4) will host the No. 2 team from the Tri Counties Athletic League, the TCAL No. 1 team will host Del Mar (BVAL West Valley Division No. 2) and Presentation (West Valley No. 1) will host Leigh (Santa Teresa No. 3).
In other Nov. 12 semi games at St. Francis, Leland, the top team in the Santa Teresa circuit, will face the Los Gatos-TCAL No. 2 winner at 10 a.m., St. Ignatius (Mt. Hamilton No. 3) will meet the TCAL No. 1-Del Mar winner at 1:30 p.m. and Mitty (Mt. Hamilton No. 1) will take on the Leigh-Presentation winner at 3:15 p.m.
The Falcons clinched their place in the playoffs with the thrilling win over Prospect last Wednesday. The Panthers took the early lead on a first-half goal by junior Paige Madsen, but Saratoga tied it in the second half when Maddie Block scored off an assist from her sister, Alex.
Alex Block broke the tie with her overtime goal off a Laura Barrett assist, and the Falcons had the win and the playoff berth.
In other Wednesday games in the division, St. Francis (7-2-3) stuck Mitty (9-1-2) with its first loss of the season, 1-0, and Los Gatos (7-4-1) rolled past Monta Vista (2-8-2) 3-0.
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Photograph by George Sakkestad